So you've been to a dealership or two, had your credit pulled and you're told that you've got credit problems. This has turned your quest for a car into a quest for a car loan. It's not a good position to be in and greatly weakens your ability to negotiate price and choose the car that you really want. It's common for dealers to tell you that you can only get approved on certain cars. This is because they're limiting you to the cars that they can make the most money on, based on what their loan companies will lend.
Car loans for people with bad credit, known as special finance, are available through other sources and you don't have to go through a dealership finance department. That's the part that they probably left out in the conversation. Dealers want you to think that they are the final authority when it comes to car loans...
Well, they aren't.
The fact is that dealerships simply process applications and forward them to lenders. They are not a lender themselves, unless you're talking about buy here pay here places and everyone knows those aren't the best places to buy a car.
When you get the dealership out of the way and deal directly with lenders, you're better able to deal with more lenders and compare offers. There are sources online that allow you to do just that. You can compare offers from multiple companies. Afterall, different lenders have different lending and credit standards and you're easily approved if you just find a lender that specializes in helping people get special finance car loans with bad credit.
